This novella tackles an important topic, the Magdalene Laundries and how the Catholic Church as well as its parishioners silently conspired to cover them up. Keegan created a good sense of time and place and despite the heavy subject, wove a redemptive Christmas story. A worthwhile (albeit short) read.

A short but powerful novella by Claire Keegan that impacted me in the long run. She crafted a heartbreaking, beautiful story in the cold winter of 1985 Ireland, that gently and slowly unfolds a beautiful story. Small Things Like These is a work of fiction that was inspired by the "The Magdalen Laundries" set in Ireland. You feel the characters emotions, empathize with the story and plot, and I connected with Bill and the acts of discretion that were needed to be done. I highly recommend this story, it can be read in one sitting.

“Whatever suffering he was to meet was a long way from what the girl at his side had already endured, and might yet surpass”.

Thank you Netgalley, Grove Atlantic, and Claire Keegan for the ARC to review!

This Irish novella is packed with atmosphere and tension. I somehow felt both held by the cozy holiday setting and also filled with unease as I got to know the unsettled protagonist and his complex hometown. With rich character development, a beautifully deliberate, slow-building plot, and simple yet evocative prose, this is one of my favorite reads of 2021.

Absolutely gorgeous - the perfect book to curl up with by a fire this holiday season. I’ll be gifting it to several friends, which is the highest praise I know.

A quick, albeit depressing read. Small things like these is one of those stories that stays with you long after putting the book down.

A finely crafted parable that quietly speaks about human kindness through its unforgettable protagonist Bill Furlough, a coal merchant in a small Irish town in the mid-1980s. The novella can and should be read in one sitting, and it would not do it justice to hint, let alone summarize, the “plot”.

Keegan’s storytelling is sparse in words while richly lyrical, in its own way Chekhovian. As I am an admirer of Chekhov, it’s a testament to Keegan’s talent that at one point I thought this is how Chekhov would have written a story had he lived in Ireland in more recent times. Behind the simplicity of the story lurks the warmth of heart and the nobility of thought that a simple act of kindness can make a huge difference in someone’s life. That a compassionate act might need courage in a world of indifference and prejudice, yet it keeps turning the cycle of meaningful life. The book would be a perfect gift, “A Christmas Carol” of our times.

My thanks to Grove Press for an ARC via NetGalley.

“He found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?” (Keegan, 2021)

Small Things Like These is a story of family and good will. Keegan’s story begins in October and ends at Christmas. The protagonist, Bill Furlong, is a hard working man with a wife and five daughters. Although he doesn’t have much in regard to financial means, Furlong is a man who gives the change in his pocket to hungry children in the street. He is generous to a fault, perhaps. On a coal delivery to the convent, Furlong finds young girls who beg him to take them away from the convent.

As Furlong discovers things about the church, he reflects on the dichotomy between Protestantism and Catholicism; past and present; fallen and pure nature, and the thin line between.

While this volume discusses the horrors that were the Magdalen laundries, it is also a story of hope and good will. Keegan challenges the reader to think about what it means to love your neighbor and how to live that kind of life. Keegan (2021) ends her book with this beautiful line, “but the worst that could have happened was also already behind him; the thing not done, which could have been—which he would have had to live with for the rest of his life.” Isn’t that the truth?

This book is a powerful call to help one another. What better time than the here and now? Do not wait and regret what could have been.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with an ARC. This was a beautiful book, well written, and powerful.

Title: Small Things Like These
Author: Claire Keegan
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

This was a very short read--I think I finished it in about an hour. Stellar, evocative writing, but I found it very bleak and quite slow. Probably just not a good fit for me, despite how vivid and detailed it was.

Claire Keegan is an award-winning author. Small Things Like These is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Grove Atlantic in exchange for an honest review.)

Small Things Like These is a poignant and quietly powerful tale of courage, compassion, standing up for what we know to be right, and raising one's voice, even if it quavers, in the face of powerful institutional pressure to turn away.
It's the lead-up to Christmas 1985 in the Irish town where Bill Furlong lives with his wife and five daughters. While many in the community are suffering from the effects of a struggling economy, the Furlong family are comparatively comfortable, thanks to their thriving wood and coal supply business. Tender-hearted Bill often extends charity to those who are struggling to make ends meet, especially with the cold winter closing in.
In the course of his work, Bill makes delivery to the local Catholic convent, associated with both a home for single mothers, a commercial laundry staffed by those women and the private school his own daughters attend. On one such visit, he discovers a shivering teenage girl locked within the coal storage hutch. Bill frees the girl and escorts her to the Convent's Mother Superior, but is troubled by the undercurrents he feels and the girl's entreaties for him to find out what has happened to her baby. Bill feels echoes from his own personal history, as his own mother found herself "in trouble" when she fell pregnant with him, but was fortunate to be taken in by her employer, Miss Wilson, rather than exiled to the home for single mothers. Bill feels compelled to "pay forward" his own early good fortune by reaching out to the young woman.
Despite several warnings he receives from townsfolk, and his own wife's suggestion that he would be wise to turn a blind eye to what goes on at the convent, Bill finds the courage to stand by his moral convictions, despite facing the ire of the all-powerful Catholic church.
Exploring the horrifying history of the Magdalen Laundries and other systemic abuses carried out by the Catholic church in Ireland (which are echoed worldwide), Claire Keegan weaves a rather beautiful narrative against an ugly and troubling backdrop. It's an unusual premise for a Christmas fable, but it works.
I'd highly recommend Small Things Like These as a short but meaningful read, which will be appreciated by readers who are fascinated by personal stories and thought-provoking scenarios. I'll be adding a copy to my own small collection of Christmas classics, to be brought out and savoured every year during Advent.
My thanks to the author, Claire Keegan, publisher of this hardcover edition Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this exquisitely poignant novella.

This is a beautifully written and powerful novella centered around the character of Bill Furlong, who is a coal and timber merchant in the town of New Ross, Ireland in the year 1985. Bill came from nothing, being the son of an unwed mother, which back then carried a terrible mark of shame. But through the kindness of his mother's employer, Mrs Wilson, they always had a place to live and Bill received a good education.

Now he has a wife and five daughters to support and this time of year, he's kept very busy making coal deliveries. One such is to the convent where the Good Shepherd nuns run a training school for girls as well as a successful laundry business. Ah, you guessed it, didn't you? One of the infamous Magdalene laundries where pregnant girls are sent. When he opens the door to the coal house, he makes an unexpected discovery that will change life for him and his family and will show what kind of man he truly is.

I am very grateful to have received an arc of this story from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It is quite a remarkable story which I can highly recommend to you. Perfect for
Christmas gifts, everyone!

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is a short but gripping story of a few days in 1985 when a man reassesses his life while continuing to work and love his family. He comes to terms with what is right, despite what others felt he should do. It touches on the stories of Magdalen girls: unwed mothers who were sent to convents to have their babies. While there, they were treated little better than slaves and their babies stolen and sold. It is a story I have heard before and still find it shocking. Bill Furlong found it shocking as well.
I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Small Things Like These by Grove Press, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions were my own. #netgalley #grovepress #clairekeegan #smallthingslikethese
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is a short but gripping story of a few days in 1985 when a man reassesses his life while continuing to work and love his family. He comes to terms with what is right, despite what others felt he should do. It touches on the stories of Magdalen girls: unwed mothers who were sent to convents to have their babies. While there, they were treated little better than slaves and their babies stolen and sold. It is a story I have heard before and still find it shocking. Bill Furlong found it shocking as well.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Small Things Like These by Grove Press, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions were my own. #netgalley #grovepress #clairekeegan #smallthingslikethese

What a beautiful, thought provoking novella this is!

In my mind there are several stories wrapped into one novella. There is the story about the Magdalen convent and home for unwed women and orphanage, with the church controlling everything in the town. There were young unwed mothers working manual labor.

But for me, the strong inner core of this story is the character of Bill Furlong. It’s winter in Ireland, 1985, many men have lost their jobs, and are now living in poverty. Bill was a good man who started a business that grew. He is able to care for his wife and 5 daughters.

It’s turning towards Christmas and Bill has been pondering his background, how things could have been had his unwed mother not gotten a helping hand?

His mother was young, working as a housekeeper. Mrs. Wilson let her continue to work for her and helped her with her child. It’s because of her that he is the man he is now! Her kindness and her faith in him.

Bill is a man who is always there when someone needs a helping hand and donates to his church, provides for his family, but he still feels that he needs to DO MORE!!

Soon Bill will be faced with an enormous decision to make, and it will be LIFE CHANGING!!

Though this takes place far from me and long ago, I think it could be about any basically good person, and there are lots! We go round and round with our good lives, but maybe by reaching out to help others, our lives could be that much richer!! Maybe we can do more than just take care of our own???

This book made me rethink how lucky I am to have what I have. Even luckier for my beautiful family. This book has me thinking about other opportunities to volunteer, help someone who isn’t as fortunate.

I felt the vibe “PAY IT FORWARD” throughout the novella with wonderful prose that made me finish the book in one day!

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.

It was my pleasure to read and review this novel.

In 1985, Bill Furlong is a family man, living with his wife and daughters in a small Irish town, managing his own business supplying local homes with coal and wood. Times are rough but he is able to care for his family with his hard work. Then one incident occurs during a late night delivery to the local convent that shakes up his sense of himself, his family and his town. There is a young girl locked inside the door to the coal chute.

We learn there has been gossip about this convent among local people, with no agreement as to what is actually going on behind those walls. Bill is sensitive to the conversations because of his own background, having been lovingly raised locally in a non-traditional family.

Claire Keegan is masterful in writing a quiet but powerful tale about one man’s response to injustice, an injustice whose full extent would not be revealed for many more years. This is a story of the Church’s and Ireland’s past, the Magdalen laundries. Keegan is one author I will always read as she deftly reveals deep emotion through simple words and actions in apt and often poetic descriptions.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I can't think of a better book to read during this holiday season than a new novella by Claire Keegan. The book, set in a small Irish town in 1985, tells a heartfelt story about a man trying to take care of his wife, Eileen, and five daughters. Bill Furlong sells coal, so he knows the area and all the people who populate it. Bill sees what others may not and wants to help.
Helping people in Bill's way may not coincide with what the ultimate authority believes is right; the Catholic church dictates life for the community. Even if everyone does not meekly submit, very few publicly act against the church, including the convent where girls live.

CK has written another powerful book that resonates with me still, and I hope it will continue to shed light on the dark corners of abuse by power.

Thank you to NetGalley, Claire Keegan, and Grove Press for this ARC.

In a Nutshell: A brilliant novella that throws a powerful punch at some misguided members of the Catholic religious.

Story:
1985. A small Irish town grappling with the cold weather and the dead economy. Bill Furlong, a coal and timber dealer, is facing a busy season with the dip in temperature. While on his coal delivery rounds to various locals, his past comes back to confront him and he is faced with a dilemma: should he allow his faith or his feelings to dictate his decision?

The entire story centres around the character of Bill, and there couldn’t have been a better hero for such a story. A loving husband, an involved father who wants to provide the best education to his five daughters, a practical businessman who is hands-on about his work, and most of all, a human being who doesn’t allow religious loyalties to blind him from their abuse of power. If you need only one reason to read this book, it should be for Bill, and to see how even one person can make a change if he/she is willing to. But that’s not the only reason to go for this read.

The book is a revelation on the abuse of power by some members of the Catholic Church. It is sad that some of the so-called religious consider themselves the right hand of God and hence free to do as per their will. Even though Jesus himself told us to pray "thy will be done", these zealots twist scriptures as per their own requirements and work to rectify the “flaws” in the society, blind to everything except their own ideologies. The book throws light on what deplorable things these people did under the guise of religious laws. No religion teaches hatred; it is human misinterpretation and ego that results in such shameful occurrences.

I loved how the book tackled the topic sensitively and honestly. The content doesn’t go over the top and yet packs a powerful punch. The writing is subtle yet impactful. The ending might feel a bit abrupt but I feel it ended on a beautiful note, at the right juxtaposition of hope and courage.

I’ve never been to Ireland, nor have I interacted with any Irish citizen (as far as I know. My GR friends are from all over the world!) All I have heard of the country is from books and newspapers. And every source confirms it to be strongly Catholic. As a Catholic myself, I liked this connection. Until the day I discovered how rigid the imposition of their Catholic beliefs could be. On 28th Octover 2012, Savita Halappanavar, a 31 year old dentist of Indian origin living in Ireland, died of septicaemia when medical staff at a local hospital denied her request for an abortion (following an incomplete miscarriage) on legal grounds. I couldn’t believe the idiocy of this rule. How could a “pro-life” law not consider that the mother’s life was at risk and the foetus had already crossed the point of death? Thankfully, that’s a thing of a past and the only good thing to come out of that sad incident was that the Irish laws with respect to abortion were modified.

The Savita Halappanavar case showed me that religious dogma rules over common sense and humanitarian feelings for some Catholics, especially for those in the church and the government. (The recent Texas abortion law confirms the same thought.) But much before this 2012 incident, there existed the Magdalene laundries. (These were not restricted to Ireland alone; these “safe houses” existed by different names in various countries including England and USA.) If you think that this was an old system, you won’t be entirely wrong. The Magdalene laundries came into existence around the mid-18th century, ostensibly to house “fallen women”, but actually catering to any girl who were found guilty of engaging in sexual activities or becoming pregnant outside of wedlock or even for girls unwanted by their families. These girls were required to work in harsh conditions for their food and board, and their babies were given away forcibly. What is sad is that they existed, even thrived, right up to the late 1990s. What is even more shameful is that these were mostly run by nuns belonging to the Roman Catholic order, and quietly supported by the state. The irony of calling them “Magdalene” laundries isn’t lost on me. The “laundry” obviously referred to the washing loads that the inmates did as part of their work. And the “Magdalene” in the name comes from Mary Magdalene, Jesus’s disciple who is known in Christianity as a reformed prostitute though the Bible never refers to her as such. Just like Mary Magdalene wasn’t a whore, the inmates of these “Magdalene laundries” were innocent.

As we have just entered the season of Advent, it is a right time to take stock of things that matter. And this book shows, in multiple ways, what matters the most. We must not lose our humaneness, and we must not use scriptures as a way of imposing our beliefs on others, rather as a way to be united with others in this journey of life. Jesus’s beautiful adage of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is something long forgotten by many Christians; high time we resurrect that thought and implement it with vehemence in our lives. This isn’t a Christmas book at its core, and yet in many ways, it is the best Christmas book to read.

4.5 stars for the writing, the historical relevance, the plot, and for making me think so much that it took me three days to review this.

My thanks to Grove Atlantic, Grove Press and NetGalley for the ARC of “Small Things Like These”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is an excellent historical fiction novella that drew me in from the very beginning, surprised me, and kept me engaged until the wonderful end.

This is my first book by Ms. Keegan, and I am now most certainly a fan.

This book takes place in the 1980s in a quintessential and predominately Catholic Irish town. The scene and historical aspect are set. What I at first thought would be a book that focussed on the infamous Magdalen laundries that were associated with the Irish Catholic institution at this time, was of course still present, but it had so much more.

The main character, Bill, is what the narrative is centered around, and through his eyes and existence in this town, we see so much more then just this controversial concept. I was able to see some of the societal structures, the interactions between townspeople, how their lives were centered, affected, and drawn by religion, preconceived ideas, and prejudices.

As this character-driven story is laid out, I can almost hear the words unspoken and see the feelings suppressed. Through his story, the reader can sift through these concepts and see how much power and influence the church has on the local community. In some ways good, and of course with anything, there can always be more. The undercurrent that ripples through the narrative is what continued to draw me in.

I enjoyed the character cast and how they compared and contrasted with the main character. What was not said or explained was just as important as what was...I always enjoy stories like that. While it was interesting to see more of how the women in the town were affected by the church and its programs and institutions, it was also interesting to delve into what it all looked like from Bill’s story.

A very interesting and unique narrative that I found refreshingly addictive and I was surprised when I finished it in less then two days.

4.5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Grove Atlantic for this arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication. I will update as soon as additional links and listings are created for reviews.

This is not your typical Christmas story, but it’s an important one. The novella packs a punch.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review

So glad I discovered Claire Keegan with this novella. Will have to look at others of her books.
The story describes Furlong´s life in the 1980s Ireland, he being a hard-working man with an unknown father and a big family of his own. When delivering coals and wood to his clients he´s used to helping out others and doing small favours. Otherwise his life seems boring to him, so when he discovers a girl with a baby in a shed near the convent, he comes to think and decides to do something.
This was well written, but the only part I couldn´t quite keep up with was his final decision where I wasn´t sure whether he didn´t make it out of his boredom and without consulting his family.
Thanks to the publisher Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I expected more from this small novel after all the accolades. I wanted more detail and character development. But what it lacked there and lacked in detail of the laundry girls saga, it made up somewhat in the message of the novel…. “Doing the right thing, and helping one another.” Appropriate and wishful thinking especially in today times.

The writing was lyrical and professional, although sad many times, yet hopeful. We know there is more sadness ahead when it ends but the attitude of the main character is lifted up with hope. I think that this being such a short novella was a disservice to the story and left me seeing potential but wanting more.

I was awarded a complimentary early release copy by Grove Press NY Publishing, via NetGalley, in exchange for an unbiased review. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Claire Keegan brilliantly reminds us that life is made of small choices. If we all did one small, brave, thing, the world would change for the better.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.